It's Never Too Late To Do The Right Thing

December 23, 1994|BOB GREENE Chicago Tribune

If you're sick of the direction sports in this country have been taking - from the preening and taunting of Deion Sanders and his many followers, to the tiresome bickering between millionaire professional athletes and the millonaire owners of their teams - then here's a sports story for you.

Chances are, it's unlike any other you may have read this year.

At the end of this year's high school soccer season in the suburbs of Chicago, there was a big game scheduled between Wheaton Christian and Waubonsie Valley.

Because it was a high school game, it was not destined to make the national sports pages. But to the communities involved, high school games and their outcomes are vastly important.

The Wheaton Christian-Waubonsie Valley game turned out to be a close one. Even though Waubonsie Valley is a bigger school, and its team had a better record, Wheaton Christian was holding its own.

Late in the game, the score was tied 2-2. Then, with a minute or so left, Waubonsie Valley scored a goal to go ahead 3-2.

As the clock ticked down toward the end of the game, Waubonsie Valley took another shot at the Wheaton Christian goal. The Wheaton Christian goalkeeper stopped the ball, then threw it to Wheaton Christian's star player Rob Mouw, a senior who is the top scorer in the school's history.

Mouw took the ball and moved it upfield toward the Waubonsie Valley goal. He managed to get past the defenders until the goal was within range. He threw a fake on the goalkeeper, kicked the ball and it went in, tying the score at 3-3.

Clock strikes conscience

But Mouw, 18, had noticed something.

"The clock was on a scoreboard behind the goal I was shooting at," he said. "There were only two seconds left in the game when I started bringing the ball up the field. It took me more than two seconds to get to the goal and take my shot, and I could clearly see that the clock had ticked down to zero before I kicked the goal."

As many people know from watching the World Cup matches last summer, the official clock for soccer games is not always kept on the scoreboard, often the referees keep the offical time on stopwatches. In high school games, this can vary.

Mouw, having just made the crucial goal, walked over to the referee.

There was only one referee at this game. There should have been two, but one didn't show up. So the one referee was in charge.

"I asked the referee whether the official clock was on the scoreboard or whether he was keeping his own time," Mouw said last week. "He said the scoreboard clock was the official time.

"I knew that he hadn't seen the clock at the end of the game, because if he had, he wouldn't have counted my goal. So I knew that the other team deserved to win."

Triumph for integrity

The referee quickly left the field - reportedly there was a great deal of commotion and arguing going on and, as we have read, sometimes referees feel fearful after making close decisions that affect the outcome of games. Rob Mouw walked to the sideline and told his coaches that the goal shouldn't count and that Waubonsie Valley should get the win.

Which is what happened. The Wheaton Christian coaches told Waubonsie Valley coach Angelo DiBernardo that the game belonged to his team, that Rob Mouw had not wanted a win if the win was unfairly achieved. He said that he considered the situation not a tough decision but an opportunity.

"Every time in your life you have an opportunity to do right, you should be thankful," he said. "For a person to know what right is, and then not to do it, that would be a sin. To have won the game - I mean, really, who cared? Doing the right thing is more important. It lets you have peace. In my opinion, every time you are lucky enough to be given the opportunity to do something right, you shouldn't pass it up."